Green Aston Blog

Save energy, Win prizes!

Students living in halls this year can win prizes like Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and club tickets – just for taking part in the Student Switch Off energy-saving & recycling competition.

So how does it work? Easy - halls students pledge to take simple actions to save energy like switching off lights and appliances, putting a lid on pans when cooking, only filling the kettle with the water needed and putting on an extra layer rather than turning on the heating.

Collectively the small energy-saving actions add up to big energy savings. The Student Switch Off competition encourages students to have fun in the dark by giving a party to the hall the saves the most energy by the end of the year. On top of this individuals can bag prizes all for themselves (and their flatmates if they like sharing!) by submitting an energy-saving themed photo in the Facebook competitions that run every few weeks. Awesome prizes are just a flick of a switch away!

This year the campaign is also adding a recycling element to encourage students to bin their beer cans in the right place!

Last year the campaign was won by Lakeside who received a great visit from the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream bus – netting them loads of free ice cream! Across all the halls last year electricity usage reduced by 10.2% saving over 83.12 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. This fantastic saving was achieved thanks to the 270 students who signed up as Eco-Power Rangers (over 11% of those in halls).

This year make sure you join the mailing list and ‘Like’ the Facebook page Aston University Student Switch Off to find out when we are dishing out the prizes.